Everyday Randomness

Last night I purchased a Buitoni Shrimp & Lobster Ravioli with Garlic Butter Sauce meal for Hubby and I to try.  I had planned to write a review of this meal as it says it’s quick and easy to prepare in 5 minutes.  It comes with a bag of pasta, and a bag of sauce.  The kit is supposed to be a “complete dinner for two”.

For a mom like me quick and easy is great, especially if the meal tastes great as well.  Hubby’s Italian gene has him wanting to eat Italian as much as possible, so I thought the Buitoni meals might be as close to the real thing as I could get without having to make it myself.

The prep and cooking were super easy.  You just drop the bag of sauce into 4 qts of water, cover, and bring to a rolling boil.  In a separate pan bring water to boiling, add the ravioli, and gently boil uncovered for 5 minutes or until tender.

Dinner was on the table in 5 minutes, and we were sitting down ready to chow down.  Hubby asked that the sauce be kept separate instead of adding it to the ravioli so that he could control how much sauce he put on his.  He added his sauce, and took a bite.  With a weird look on his face he said “this does NOT taste like shrimp and lobster.”

I took a bite, and sure enough it didn’t taste like shrimp and lobster at all.  In fact it tasted just like sausage. I cut open a piece of ravioli, and what I found inside was definitely not “lobster, shrimp, and custom Impastata Ricotta cheese.”  It was definitely sausage.

What was supposed to be in the box vs. what was in the box

This was NOT Shrimp & Lobster Ravioli

Because Buitoni also makes a Braised Beef & Sausage Ravioli with Creamy Marinara Sauce I believe the wrong pasta was put in the wrong box.  This is a major bummer since the dinner was basically inedible.  I paid $7.88 for a meal that ended up in the trash.  We could have sucked it up and eaten it if we liked sausage (and had the correct sauce), but even without the sauce we didn’t like the taste of the ravioli.

I ended up having to cook another meal, and Hubby decided he doesn’t even want to give Buitoni another try.  I agree with him that $7.99 is a lot to waste for a meal that didn’t even contain the right stuff, and I’m hoping this is just a one time mistake made by the manufacturer.  That said, we’re still not likely to try these meals again on the off chance that the next one we buy won’t be the right thing either.

Update:

Right after publishing this post I emailed a complaint to Buitoni along with a link to my post and photos.  That was around 5:30pm on Thursday evening.  Buitoni was very quick to respond to my complaint. I had a voicemail from a consumer service rep at 9:30am on Friday morning letting me know my complaint had been sent to the quality assurance team and asking me to return her call.  I returned her call around 2pm, and I will be receiving a care package including free merchandise coupons in the mail shortly.  Thank you Buitoni for making this right.

Tags: authentic italian, bad food, buitoni, consumer complain, customer complaint, free coupons, frozen food, frozen food wrong product, italian meal kit, pasta, product boxed wrong, product refund, shrimp & pasta ravioli, wrong product in box

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